Goalkeeper Drake Callender was acquired by Inter Miami from the San Jose Earthquakes in a trade in November 2019. The 25-year-old California native made his first professional start in March 2022 following two previous seasons in the Club’s development pathway, going on to make the First Team starting goalkeeper position his own, registering 24 regular season starts and starting in the team’s Audi 2022 MLS Cup matchup in October, while also finishing a highly successful 2022 campaign amongst the finalists for Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the year. In 2022, Callender also made the MLS Team of the Week on three occasions, including a Week 12 performance in which he kept a clean sheet against eventual Eastern Conference leaders Philadelphia Union and made a SportsCenter Top 10 save. Callender provided essential saves at key moments throughout the campaign, notably making his mark in the final stretch of the regular season with match-winning saves in the late stages of matches against Columbus Crew and D.C. United, followed by a clean sheet against Toronto FC.
Callender is a former NCAA Division I soccer player at the University of California, Berkeley. He played at the school for four years, making 54 appearances and keeping 16 clean sheets. The goalkeeper made a career-high nine saves on two separate occasions, once as a freshman against Oregon State University and once as a sophomore against the University of Portland. Callender was named to the United Soccer Coaches NCAA All-Far West Region First Team and the All-Pac-12 First Team for the 2017 season. For the 2018 season, he was named to the preseason MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List and earned United Soccer Coaches NCAA All-Far West Region Third Team and All-Pac-12 Second Team honors.
